Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, New York

That’s a clip from a locker room pep talk Coach Victor Nazario gave to his team before a playoff game in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which destroyed the team’s equipment, wrecked their school, and waylaid the lives of its players. It’s not exactly Coach Eric Taylor stuff, not by a long shot, but boy, does it have a lot of heart.

Which reminds me: Do you miss “Friday Night Lights” as much as I do? Watch this ultimate montage of Coach Taylor pep talks; if you can get through it without tears in your eyes, then you don’t miss FNL like I do. I wish I could take a pill that would wash my brain and make me forget that I had ever watched that show, so I could have the particular joy of watching it all over again for the first time. If you’ve never seen FNL, I envy you, because now you get to see it with fresh eyes. Last I checked, all five seasons were on Netflix streaming.

It makes me happy to remember that Julie and I gave Ruthie all the episodes of “Friday Night Lights” on DVD as she was dying of cancer. She watched them and loved them and took comfort from them. The life of Dillon, Texas, was in most ways the life she lived and loved in St. Francisville, Louisiana. I hope I have conveyed that truth in “The Little Way of Ruthie Leming.”

I love the characters of Friday Night Lights, and its rare Hollywood emphasis on a real window to small town life but …

I attempted to watch several of the first season episodes at once.

I couldn’t get past the way, way compressed time line:

All star QB gets his neck broken in first game (presumably around Labor Day).

By the end of October, he is out of the hospital, and trying out for a wheel chair basketball team, living on his own, hundreds of miles away.

Then there was his girlfriend – good, church girl, cheerleader.

At Labor Day, she was all star qb’s girlfriend. By the end of October, she has had a fling with alcoholic, 16 year old linebacker, and spiraled out of control.

Meanwhile, the black running back in the space of one two month regular season gets suspended for drugs, dates a lying, messed up preachers daughter, quits the team in protest over a coach, and then gets back on the team.

Meanwhile good girl cheer leader’s, sleazy car dealer Dad has a fling with the mom of another student, and ends up on the couch of Coach Taylor.

I get drama and all, and I appreciate the emphasis on small town life, and the end all / be all of local sports, but I quit the show because it was way too soap opery for me.